Border Response

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We are seeing the devastating effects of current U.S. immigration policy. Many people attempting to legally seek asylum as they enter the U.S. at our southern border are being treated as criminals and thousands of families have been torn apart.

How HIAS Is Responding to this Crisis:

We have launched an emergency response program to ensure that asylum seekers have access to legal representation. Legal representation can have a huge impact on asylum seekers’ ability to be released from detention and be reunited with their children.

HIAS is proud to be placing Border Fellows in three non-profit legal organizations along the southern border to increase their capacity to provide legal representation to asylum seekers in and out of detention. One fellow is working out of our affiliate, JFS San Diego, and two other fellows are going to be hosted in El Paso. We are still looking to fill the two positions in El Paso, and the job descriptions can be found here.

In August, HIAS and the ADL led a trip to the U.S.-Mexican border for leaders of national Jewish organizations to witness firsthand how the Trump administration’s policies are endangering individuals and families fleeing violence and persecution. HIAS also sent a legal delegationto the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas to assist with adult asylum applicants, many of whom have been separated from their children after crossing the U.S. border. In July, we sent a teamof legal and program experts to several areas along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to determine how best to respond to the crisis.

We continue to mobilize the Jewish community to be a strong, persistent moral voice in support of fair, humane treatment of asylum seekers. In July, HIAS organized a solidarity mission of 40 Rabbis and Jewish leaders to the border.

We engage in asylum advocacy in Washington, seeking the reversal of the Administration’s zero-tolerance policy.